Sean Turnell

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Articles

Australia’s chance to align global efforts against “hostage diplomacy”

Dec 3, 2024 | lowyinstitute.org | Sean Turnell

Last week the Australian Senate’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade handed down its report into the wrongful detention of Australian citizens overseas. A phenomenon that unfortunately only continues to grow, such wrongful detention (often referred to as “hostage diplomacy”) is increasingly used by authoritarian regimes around the world as a tool of leverage over democratic countries and their foreign policy.
Hostage diplomacy: Fresh ideas to end a modern blight

Aug 26, 2024 | lowyinstitute.org | Sean Turnell

The dramatic 24-person prisoner swap between Russia, the United States and a number of other countries this month drew the world’s attention again to the vexing issue of so-called “hostage diplomacy” – that sadly growing phenomenon by which authoritarian regimes unjustly imprison foreigners for leverage. Democratic countries, whose governments are held accountable over the fate of their citizens (and are thus seen as vulnerable because of it), are the usual targets of the practice.
Best Laid Plans: A Lowy Institute Paper: Penguin Special: The Inside Story of Reform in Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar by Sean Turnell

Jul 30, 2024 | penguin.com.au | Sean Turnell

Sean Turnell is Honorary Professor of Economics at Macquarie University. In 2009 he published an influential book on Myanmar’s financial system, Fiery Dragons, which made him an internationally recognised expert on the subject and one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s most trusted advisers. He was arrested in Myanmar in 2021 following a military coup and imprisoned for 650 days. Sean lives in Sydney with his wife, Ha Vu, who campaigned tirelessly for his release.
How Myanmar’s Central Bank Facilitates the Junta’s Oppression

Jul 11, 2024 | usip.org | Sean Turnell

Skip to main content KEY TAKEAWAYS The junta’s mismanagement of the economy has led them to rely on the Central Bank of Myanmar to fund their wars and evade sanctions. The bank is a key weapon in the junta’s arsenal against the Myanmar people. The international community should join the U.S. in formally sanctioning the bank.
January-February 2024, no. 461

Feb 26, 2024 | australianbookreview.com.au | David McBride |David Mcbride |Kevin Foster |Sean Turnell |Nick Hordern

ABR’s annual double issue is packed with summer-reading features. To complement our Books of the Year feature (December issue), Australia’s top arts critics nominate 2023’s outstanding productions. Kevin Foster doesn’t pull his punches on David McBride’s whistleblower memoir, Emma Dortins reviews Kate Fullagar’s innovative biography of Bennelong and Arthur Phillip, and Frank Bongiorno considers Raimond Gaita’s tangle with life’s big questions.
Book Talk: An Unlikely Prisoner: How an eternal optimist found hope in Myanmar’s most notorious jail

Nov 14, 2023 | csis.org | Sean Turnell

For 650 days Sean Turnell was held in Myanmar’s terrifying Insein Prison on the trumped-up charge of being a spy. In his recently released book, An Unlikely Prisoner, he recounts how an impossibly cheerful professor of economics, whose idea of an uncomfortable confrontation was having to tell a student that their essay was ‘not really that good’, ended up in one of the most notorious prisons in Southeast Asia.
An Unlikely Prisoner by Sean Turnell

Nov 14, 2023 | penguin.com.au | Sean Turnell

‘Australia’s most unlikely political prisoner . . . is known as a person of deep optimism, bubbling enthusiasm and infectious warmth.’Melissa Crouch, Sydney Morning Herald For 650 days Sean Turnell was held in Myanmar’s terrifying Insein Prison on the trumped-up charge of being a spy.
The Fix: All roads lead to the White House

Sep 26, 2023 | lowyinstitute.org | Sean Turnell

We’re asking contributors to put together their own short collected observations like this one – and as always, if you’ve got an idea to pitch for The Interpreter, drop a line via the contact details on the About page. Scot Marciel is a quiet American in the very best sense. He’s also the author of the finest book on American policy towards Southeast Asia I’ve ever read.
Commentary: In a meaningless gesture, Myanmar junta cuts Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence

Aug 2, 2023 | channelnewsasia.com | Sean Turnell

SYDNEY: Myanmar’s generals have long demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to remember everything, and to learn nothing. Sometimes this serves them well. Much of the world, when it thinks of Myanmar at all, neither remembers nor learns. So on Tuesday (Aug 1), we see an announcement by Myanmar’s ruling junta that it is to reduce the prison sentences of some key officials of the democratically elected government it overthrew in February 2021.
In a meaningless gesture, Myanmar’s junta cuts Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence

Aug 1, 2023 | lowyinstitute.org | Sean Turnell

Myanmar’s generals have long demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to remember everything, and to learn nothing. Sometimes this serves them well. Much of the world, when it thinks of Myanmar at all, neither remembers nor learns. So on Tuesday we see an announcement by Myanmar’s ruling junta that it is to reduce the prison sentences of some key officials of the democratic government it overthrew in February 2021.